Living the Resurrected Life: Growing Through Adversity

23Apr2017

"The Gospel can show its power only where there is a cross and where there is suffering." Martin Luther

What's so special about the serotinous pine cone in our image? It is covered with a resin that must be melted in order to open and release its seeds. Extreme heat of a forest fire serves this purpose! As one forest dies to the ground, a new forest starts to grow. How does this relate to Martin Luther's quote?

Younger Set

1. Ask youth to draw or share verbally about a hard time when they or someone they know faced suffering.2. Help the youth process the parallel between the pine cone in nature, and suffering in our lives.3. Brainstorm events or lives from Scripture when God brought growth/blessing from a time of suffering.4. Discuss some ideas of ways youth may encourage others who are suffering (example - have youth make cards to deliver in person at a nursing home where Emmanuel has connections).

Points to Ponder - When was a specific time that my identity in Christ, as revealed in God's Word, centered and strengthened me? How do the lasting treasures Christ secured for me by His resurrection transform my daily life? What growth have I seen from my or another's adversity? What action is God calling me to take to bring Gospel hope to fellow believers or pre-saved neighbors?

1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
To God’s elect, exiles scattered throughout the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, 2 who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient to Jesus Christ and sprinkled with his blood:
Grace and peace be yours in abundance.

3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.

6 In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

10 Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, 11 trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories that would follow. 12 It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things.

13 Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming. 14 As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. 15 But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; 16 for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”